Revival
by esama
Summary: The King is dying. Long live the King. Post Series, warning for character's upcoming death, spoilers and screwing up the canon.


Warnings: Au, post series, character's upcoming death. Sorta sad.

Summary: The King is dying. Long live the King.

**Revival**

Seto wasn't sure how long he spent on staring the door to the hospital room, oddly unsure of whether or not he wanted to go in. He'd be welcome of course – the person beyond the door was never anything but cheerful and welcoming and happy to see just about anyone, even his old enemies. But did Seto want to see him, really? See him as he had become?

"He doesn't have that much time left, you know," Jonouchi had told him, couple days back. "It's now or never, moneybags. Soon he won't be there and then what'll you do? What will anyone of us do?" the last bit was whispered low, as the blond had walked away, and all the more difficult to ignore because of it.

Seto squeezed his hands into fists and took a breath. He hated this, hated every bit of it – had hated it from the moment he had realised what was going on. How long ago had it been? He had always suspected, for years, but… he hadn't _known_ until two months ago.

When Yugi had, finally, withdrawn from school completely, after having spent the previous three months missing days and then weeks. Missing them _not_ because tournaments, _not_ because games, _not_ because he was growing ever stronger, like the King of Games ought – but because he was doing the exact opposite. Because he was growing weaker.

Well, Seto wasn't weak nor was he growing any weaker. So, with a mental kick at himself, he pushed to door open, not too surprised to find himself assaulted with colourful banners hanging from the walls and the ceiling, with every surface above floor covered in flowers and meaningless _get well soon_ cards and, of course, games.

"Kaiba?" the sole occupant in the colourfully littered room asked, and the billionaire had to pause.

Yugi looked strange without hair. Of course, Seto knew somewhat abstractly that for as long as he had known Yugi, he had _never_ had any hair, but without the wig he looked… strange. Foreign and naked. The fact that he had lost weight, that there was IV going into his arm, that his heart pulsed through the room in beeps, that he still had that medical eye patch on, didn't help.

"Yugi," Seto forced out, stepping into the room and letting the door swing shut after him, leaving him enclosed in the oddly smothering atmosphere of the room with its colourful adornments. Yugi looked up at him from the bed where he was sitting awkwardly, unsurely – hadn't been expecting to see him.

"Well," the smaller duellist finally said, running a hand awkwardly over his forehead, looking embarrassed. "Take a seat?" he offered unsurely.

Seto shook his head but walked forward and to the seat offered, sitting down with his arms folded and scowl firmly on his face, staring at Yugi hard. Underneath the weakness he could see some of the old Mutou Yugi, some of the old strength and warmth but it was all worn to a shadow of its former glory by his ailment. He didn't look like the proud duellist he had been. He looked… human.

He looked weak. Weak and pathetic.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here," Yugi admitted after a while, when Seto couldn't come up with anything to say. "But I guess I should've. It isn't like you'd be able to let me go, without last fight." Here he glanced towards the table just beside his bed, where a box sat amongst the flower vases – golden, carved full of Egyptian symbols. The box where he kept his deck.

"I'm not here to play a game with you," Seto admitted, somehow offended by the insinuation. Though he could see, in a way, how much it would be worth to play Yugi one last time – even without holograms, without audience, without cameras to record them… it wasn't what he wanted. Maybe later, years from now, he'd regret missing the opportunity but he doubted it. He'd rather remember his old rival in the height of his glory.

Which was also why he was regretting coming. Did he really want to see Yugi like this? No. But he'd be damned before he let Yugi slip away without a word either.

"Why are you here then?" Yugi asked, frowning. "And, also, you're already getting the Sky Dragon. It's in my will – Jonouchi will get Obelisk and Malik will get Ra. They're none of them here either."

Seto didn't want the stupid card – what the hell would it matter, once Yugi would be gone? But he said nothing to it, shaking his head. "Not why I'm here," he said, almost growling. "I came to see you – and only that. I don't want anything."

"Oh," the smaller duellist said, blinking his single visible eye – maybe his _single_ eye. Seto had his suspicions as to what, exactly, was wrong with Yugi.

Nobody had naturally white pupils, after all.

"Well then. Um," Yugi said, looking away, awkward, unsure what to do or say. "So, uh. You want to talk about something, or-?"

"How long have you had it? What do you got anyway?" Seto asked. "It's not Coats disease or Norrie disease and if you had retinopathy of prematurity you'd probably be half blind, and not dying. So what is it?"

Yugi looked at him with surprise and hesitated before shrugging. "Retinoblastoma," he said. "Tumour in my eyes. Or that's how it started anyway, somewhere my fourth grade. By the time I entered middle school, it had gone down the right optical nerve and… well. It was inoperable."

Seto scowled at that, turning to look at the floor instead of Yugi – who, he realised, looked naked just because of the lack of hair but also because he wasn't wearing his usual clothing. Hospital pyjamas didn't suite Yugi, neither did the lack of his signature collar and chains and bracelets. "So all this time…"

Yugi shrugged and didn't answer – didn't really have to. All the time Seto had known him Yugi had been _dying_. The odd absences had probably been his chemo treatments – and hell, if that didn't explain everything. Like why Yugi was, at age of seventeen, still so damned short and small.

"Your eye?" Seto asked, glancing up. "Why was it cut out?"

"Oh, that? I had an aneurysm, two months ago," Yugi said awkwardly, looking away as he fingered the eye patch. "The tumour's just behind it and they couldn't get at the aneurysm the old fashioned way. The eye was putting some pressure on the optical nerve anyway and…" he shrugged. "I've been blind in that eye for a year or so anyway, so it wasn't that big of a loss."

Seto swallowed, closing his eyes for a moment. "I see," he said roughly and shifted on his seat. What the hell were you supposed to say to something like that anyway? "Is there," he started, paused to think and then scowled. "There probably isn't any specialist out there who could help," he said more to himself than to Yugi. Because Yugi had won _millions_ in Duel Monsters tournaments, and yet he was still dying. If there was some expensive doctor out there who could save Yugi's life, it already would've been done.

"Not unless someone invented a new technique this morning, no," Yugi shrugged and was quiet for a moment before awkwardly saying, "I don't really… well, I obviously don't want to die, but I've been living this almost for years now. I'm sort of used to the idea."

Seto snorted, and was able to look at him in the eye again. "Why the hell did you keep coming to school?" he asked with disbelief. Why, when he had no future, and when the first year at their school had obviously been hell for the smaller teen, why had he bothered?

"I wanted to," Yugi shrugged. "Sure, I was dying but… so is everyone else. The fact that I was doing it a bit quicker than most didn't really change the fact that I wanted to live a normal life."

"Normal," Seto snorted, thinking about the Millennium Items and then scowling as another thought came to him. "Did the Pharaoh know?"

Now Yugi couldn't look at _him_. "Maybe? Honestly, we never talked about it," he said. "Obviously he knew about the treatments, the chemo – I never took the puzzle with me to the hospital, except that one time and it had nothing to do with the cancer, but…" he trailed away. "He might've not understood. Cancer wasn't exactly a thing in his time."

"The wig didn't clue him in?" Seto snorted, privately wondering _how the hell_ he had been convinced by the thing. It was black, purple and blond and shaped like a start – how had it _ever_ been able to convince him that it was _actual_ hair?

"They all wore wigs in his day. And the ones who didn't were either bald or too poor for a proper razor or a wig – or not Egyptian," Yugi snorted and shook his head, smiling gently. "He might've known, he might've not. He knew I was pretty weak and he made me stronger – I probably would've died couple years back without him, the cancer sort of… stalled when he was here, but…" he shrugged.

"Right," Seto muttered. "And it didn't occur to you to ask him to stay, since he was keeping the thing at bay?"

"No, of course not," Yugi said, looking up with shock. "Why would I ask him that? How could I?"

"To live," Seto answered with a growl.

The shorter teen snorted at that. "You didn't know him like I did, and you don't know me. Even if it had occurred to me to ask, I never would've," he said. "One day when you're old and decrepit and dying, maybe you'll understand why."

Seto scowled but didn't answer – mainly because he could see anything he would say would never penetrate Yugi's twisted ideology. Damned Egyptian beliefs. "Fine," he said and glanced around the room. "How long do you have, then?"

Yugi chuckled. "Nobody knows. I've got a very bizarre timeframe," he said. "I should be long dead. I could die tomorrow. I could die right now, during this conversation. No one's sure. But I'm about due another aneurysm any day now."

"Tch!" Seto hissed and glared at him. He was entirely too cheerful about this. It was… _unnerving_ to say at least. "Why aren't you bothered about this? Aren't you in pain or anything?"

"Good meds. _Really_ good meds," Yugi said, motioning his IV. "And I _am_ bothered by this. I just…" he shrugged and smiled, tilting his – bald, one eyed, eyebrow less, bony, strange – head to the side. "I decided long ago I wouldn't spend my last days weeping. So I'm not. I'm going to die and… it could be worse."

"What, exactly, would be worse than dying?" Seto muttered in disgust.

"I could live," Yugi answered, closing his eyes with an oddly vindictive sort of look on his pale face. "I could live long, long time in horrible pain, taking half a dozen different meds every day for the rest of my life, spending every other week in chemo, in treatment, in and out of hospitals. I could _live_," he almost growled. "And that would be _so_ much worse than dying."

Seto swallowed and turned his gaze to the floor again, his throat hurting all of sudden. He took a breath, fighting it through his aching throat and then straightened his back a bit. "I see," he muttered, still unable to look at his rival.

"I'm sorry, it's just that everybody expects me to be mad about this," Yugi muttered. "Jonouchi threw a fit and Anzu sobbed for four hours straight and Ryou looks at me like I've given up and…" he stopped, inhaling and exhaling. "Everybody dies," he said. "Everybody who's ever lived has died, and everyone who ever will live will probably do the same. Why the hell do _I_ have to be mad about it?"

"Well. Seeing that it's a bit personal to you," Seto muttered. "I guess people expect it to hit closer to home with you."

Yugi laughed, a dry, short sound and then shifted on the bed. There was a mechanical hum as he lifted the back of the bed into a sitting position and then laid against it, half lying down, half sitting. "I'm not mad. Or sad. Or really anything," he admitted. "And I'm not happy or relieved either. I'm just… tired."

Seto nodded and breathed deeply in and out, until the blockage in his throat eased somewhat and he could look up without feeling the pain clutching onto his wind pipe. "Is there anything you want?" he asked suddenly, not sure why but needing to get it out.

"What?" Yugi asked, turning his singe – white-pupiled – eye at Seto.

"Is there anything you want? You know. For last… something," the billionaire said, making a vague gesture with his hand. "I could…" he trailed away awkwardly. "Seeing that these are your last days and all."

Yugi eyed him for a long while silently, without expression. Then, just as Seto had started feeling awkward and embarrassed and like he ought to leave, the smaller duellist smiled. "You know, sometimes you're very nice," he said, making the taller teen scowl harder.

"Well you can forget it now," Seto muttered, making Yugi chuckle.

"I don't need anything. But thanks," the King of Games said. "Though you could promise to come to my funeral. It's going to… probably a bit weird for you, though."

"Weird? How?" Seto asked suspiciously – because if he had learned anything about is previous interactions with the other duellist was to beware the weird.

"Well… This is going to sound a bit strange, but I'm going to be mummified and entombed in Egypt, in the tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh," Yugi answered, leaving Seto staring at him with disbelief. "Yeah, yeah, I know," Yugi said, waving a hand. "It's weird but I want it done. I need it done."

Seto was tempted to ask _why the hell_ but he knew better. Of _course_ Yugi would want mummification and then entombment in the Pharaoh's tomb. What other way could he possibly be buried, after all the crap they had gone through? "How the hell is it going to be done? Is that even _legal_ these days?"

"It was a bit tricky. The Ishtals worked it out, for the most part, though I had to throw almost all my tournament winnings to get it done," Yugi laughed and leaned his head back. "It's more or less legal. I even have legal documents and tickets to have my body carried to Egypt. Bit weird, considering I'm still alive, but anyway…"

"But the Pharaoh's Tomb, how are you going to be buried there – hasn't it been discovered by the wider world? Didn't your _grandfather_ discover it?" Seto asked suspiciously. "It's probably a tourist attraction now."

"The tomb of the Millennium Puzzle was discovered, yes, but not the tomb where the Nameless Pharaoh's actual body is kept. The Ishtals guard it still, and so as long as they will no one's ever going to find it," Yugi shrugged and smiled. "I'll be entombed there, beside him. I already got a sarcophagus and everything." He said it almost proudly.

"Ugh," Seto grunted, running a hand over his forehead, remembering why he didn't like talking to Mutou Yugi. He somehow always ended up finding himself in way over his head. "Right. So… Right," he said and shook his head. "I'll… maybe be present at your, uh, entombment. So as long as I don't have to see the mummification."

"Nah, that'll take weeks, maybe months," Yugi said, shaking his head and closing his single eye. "By the time the ceremonies will be held, I'll be all wrapped up and you won't even see the mummy. Just the sarcophagus. So no worries."

And just like that, Seto was back realising that _Yugi was dying_ and the tightness of his throat had came back with a vengeance. "Fuck," he muttered, looking away and giving a small cough, trying not to wheeze. "This is _fucked_ up."

"Yeah. Sorry about that," Yugi answered with a sigh and opened his eye. He looked tired, his eyelid at half mast, his white-pupiled eye strange. "You know, once I'm gone, you'll be the next King of Games. It's… a bit poetic, don't you think?" he asked and then, when Seto couldn't answer, he added quietly; "Long live the king."

"That's not close to being funny," Seto finally croaked.

"No, it isn't," Yugi agreed with a chuckle and sighed before looking away. "You sure you don't want to play a game?" he asked, eying the golden box holding his deck.

The taller duellist followed his gaze and for a moment thought about the deck inside the box – the deck he had faced so many times, gotten beaten by so many times. All those familiar monsters, spells and traps… to face them one more time? To face them like this, here?

He couldn't bear for that to be their last duel. No, he'd prefer it to be the one they had played months ago, in the Nationals. Yugi had won the championship, it had been televised – it had been glorious. _That_ was what Seto wanted to remember.

"Yeah. I'm sure," he finally answered, glaring at dying King of Games for a moment and then sighing as Yugi just looked at him. "You're not supposed to _die_," Seto muttered somewhat belligerently.

"Sorry," Yugi said, reaching a hand towards him – it was thin, with IV running into the vein on the back, with a pulse oximeter on his forefinger. It, like everything else about Yugi, looked strange now.

After a moment of hesitation Seto took the hand in his own, wincing a bit at how large – and healthy – his own hand seemed in comparison. Yugi just smiled, though. "Thanks for coming," he said, very weakly squeezing Seto's fingers. "I know we never were close or anything, but it means a lot. So thanks."

Seto nodded, grinding his teeth together hard while staring at their hands, and said nothing.

xx

Formerly known as Awaken, but I already had a story by that name so... Also used to be, very briefly, in Story Deck, but I don't like double posting.


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